Close Encounters

Life is a zoo in a jungle.

Peter De Vries
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Hello Addis Ababa Ethiopia
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New York City has a number of amazing zoos. The Bronx Zoo, which is actually The New York Zoological Society (since many things in New York have two names) and the small but excellent Central Pork Zoo, where, if you're in New York City, you should go to see the penguin exhibit among other things.

Otherwise there is the general wildlife of New York. The ubiquitous pigeons, squirrels and cock roaches (which, I'm told, is the only creature that servived the atom bomb).

There were also some strange spottings of animals over the years: an alligator living in one of the waterways, a coyote loose in Central Park, a family of Peregrine falcons nesting in the top of one of the tall buildings.

Then there was the Siamese cat.

Some people in the city keep strange animals in their apartments. I once went to a rehearsal in an apartment that had a boa constrictor living there. The snake didn't move. It slept the whole time I was there which was alright with me. And I knew an actor who turned his bathroom into an aviary for a flock of birds. He also had a parrot in the ktichen.

I went to visit an actress friend and her husband. Their apartment building had a garage attached to it. He was working in the garage so we went there. There was a monkey in a cage who was so glad to see me he pissed on me.

Then there was that Siamese cat.

Some of the ground floor apartments in the city have back yards. I knew a woman who kept her pet sheep out there.

But the strangest encounter I had was with a bobcat. I went to the ground floor apartment to rehears and found an apartment full of animals: a strange tropical bird in a cage, a turtle, a small furry dog, a Siamese cat and two bobcats. The people were environmentalists who were into saving the bobcat, so they had two of them. She told me that one of them was nice and the other one was nasty. She tried to get them both into the back yard, but while I was sitting on the sofa going over the script I was suddenly joined by a creature who jumped up on the sofa to check me out. I turned and was face to face with a wild bobcat. It was about 6 inches from my face and staring at me. I was scared. I wondered wither it was the nice one or the nasty one. But just at that moment the Siamese cat appeared from somewhere and sat down. When the bobcat saw it he lowered his head and slunk away into the back yard. With all those animals in the house I was impressed to see that the Siamese cat was the one in charge. Without lifting a paw it told the big dangerous bobcat what to do and where to go.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
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Never give up.
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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